Indians Conquer Yet Another Silicon Valley Peak: Sabih Khan Rises to Apple’s COO
Moradabad-born Muslim engineer’s 30-year climb—from brass-ware bazaars to Cupertino’s command centre—cements India’s growing footprint atop global tech leadership.
Author Credentials
Karan Bir Singh Sidhu is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer with four decades of public service, culminating as Special Chief Secretary, Punjab. A gold medallist in Electronics and Communications Engineering, he writes at the intersection of high-tech trends, Silicon Valley, the Indian diaspora, and global geostrategic developments.
India-born Sabih Khan has journeyed from the brass-working lanes of Moradabad to Apple’s coveted corner office, becoming Chief Operating Officer and the second-most powerful executive at the world’s most valuable technology company.
A childhood that spanned continents
Born in 1966 into a well-known Muslim business family in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, Sabih Khan grew up amid the bustle of the city’s famed brass-ware export trade. His father, Saeed U. Khan, managed the family enterprise, while his mother, Sajada Khan, came from another entrepreneurial lineage. When Sabih was ten, the family relocated to Singapore, exposing him early to multicultural classrooms and a global business hub—an experience that would later shape his ease with international supply chains.
An uncommon educational mix
Khan left Asia for the United States in the mid-1980s and pursued an unusual dual-degree path at Tufts University, graduating with bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Economics. He then deepened his technical grounding with a master’s in Mechanical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This blend of engineering rigour and economic insight became the hallmark of his professional style—analytical yet commercially astute.
Early professional learning curve
His first posting at GE Plastics immersed him in advanced materials and large-scale manufacturing. Managing demanding global clients taught him how to balance technical detail with customer expectations, lessons that proved indispensable when he joined Apple in 1995—well before the iPod or iPhone had been imagined.
Three decades of building Apple’s industrial backbone
1995-2007: Laying the foundations
Khan entered Apple’s procurement team at a turbulent time and quietly helped stabilise component supplies during Steve Jobs’s return and the birth of the iMac.2007-2019: Scaling the iPhone era
As Apple vaulted from a niche computer maker to a consumer-electronics titan, Khan became a central architect of an operations network that could deliver hundreds of millions of devices annually while maintaining near-legendary quality standards. He brokered long-term agreements across Asia, pioneered meticulous factory-audit regimes and consistently drove costs lower without sacrificing worker welfare.2019: Senior Vice-President of Operations
Tim Cook elevated him to Apple’s executive team, praising his ability to “lead with heart”. From this seat Khan navigated everything from trade tensions to component shortages, all while launching ambitious environmental initiatives such as recycled-aluminium enclosures and supplier clean-energy programmes.2020-2022: Crisis commander
During the pandemic he rewrote factory layouts overnight, deployed health protocols across continents and kept Apple’s product pipeline flowing when rivals faltered. Analysts credit this performance for protecting billions in revenue and cementing his reputation as Apple’s quiet crisis-solver.2023-2024: Diversifying beyond China
Anticipating geopolitical risks, his team accelerated multi-billion-dollar expansions in India and Vietnam, positioning Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as rising iPhone manufacturing hubs. The move resonated strongly with the Indian government’s Make-in-India ambitions and signalled Apple’s long-term commitment to the country.
The ascent to Chief Operating Officer
With long-time COO Jeff Williams set to retire later in 2025, Apple announced Khan’s promotion after what insiders describe as a multi-year succession plan. As COO he now directs end-to-end hardware engineering, procurement, logistics and Apple’s influential supplier-responsibility programme, placing him at the fulcrum of every iPhone, Mac and Vision headset that rolls off an assembly line.
Personal life behind the curtain
True to Apple’s culture of discretion, Khan keeps his private sphere largely out of public view. He is married to a US-born partner, the couple have three children and maintain homes in both Singapore and the United States. Friends describe him as soft-spoken, partial to classic Hindi songs and known for flying overnight to a factory floor rather than issuing remote directives.
Leadership style
Colleagues call him methodical and unflappable—a leader who prefers spreadsheets to spotlight yet commands deep loyalty. A celebrated anecdote recounts Tim Cook telling Khan a production snag in China was “really bad”, then pausing: “Why are you still here?” Minutes later Khan was en route to the airport, illustrating his bias for hands-on problem solving.
Why this matters to India and its diaspora
Khan’s rise resonates far beyond Cupertino. For young Indians and the diaspora, his story affirms that world-class leadership can originate in provincial India and flourish on a global stage. It also underscores the growing clout of Indian-origin executives steering iconic technology brands—from Alphabet and Microsoft to IBM and now Apple’s operations helm.
Challenges on the horizon
As COO, Sahib Khan must:
Fortify supply-chain resilience amid geopolitical frictions and potential export controls.
Hit Apple’s 2030 carbon-neutrality target, scaling renewable energy and recycled materials across thousands of suppliers.
Prepare manufacturing for next-gen products such as spatial-computing devices, AI-centric wearables and potentially autonomous systems.
Deepen manufacturing roots in India and Southeast Asia while balancing labour standards and cost efficiency.
A quiet billionaire who still sweats the details
Industry estimates peg Khan’s personal net worth at more than two billion US dollars, largely in Apple stock—yet associates say he remains the engineer who inspects a production line with a torque wrench in hand. That combination of intellectual breadth, operational focus and understated charisma now propels him into Apple’s top echelon at a pivotal moment for the company and for global technology supply chains.
From Moradabad’s brass bazaars to the nerve centre of the world’s most sophisticated consumer-electronics operation, Sabih Khan embodies the possibilities of Indian talent on a world stage—an inspiration to the nation’s youth and a point of pride for the wider diaspora.
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